The Story: 12,000 years ago, a tribe is invaded and the men kidnapped for the purpose of building the first pyramids of Egypt. One of the men that survived the attack goes after his tribesman and his woman, who was also stolen as a gift for the king. Along the way he encounters many strange beasts and becomes a leader of men.

The Good: There is no doubt that the film feels like a big epic. It’s immense in subject matter and full of great concepts. The cinematography is pretty spectacular as are the aesthetically beautiful sets. A lot of skill went into the building of this film.

The Bad: No matter how big your film is, without a decent script, there is no movie. This script needed some help. Writer Harold Kloser is a decent music composer, but his first script lacks the complexity and creativity of his music. The story is not compelling and the characters don’t earn our empathy or interest. The story has some potential, but doesn’t know what to do with it. Maybe it’s the distraction that the film steals too many elements from other more successful epics such as Apocalypto and Dances With Wolves, or maybe its that the acting is so poor by most of the cast, but whatever it is, it’s more than apparent that this pic just doesn’t work.

To make matters worse, the CG isn’t up to snuff. The mammoths look decent, but the saber-tooth tiger looks completely inorganic. And lets not discuss the giant birds that look more like dodos than raptors.

I have here exactly the opposite complaint that I had with Semi-Pro last week: this should have been an R-rated film. You throw in more violence, more bad behavior, and maybe even some decent romance and/or sex, and you might have the ingredients for a pretty strong film on your hands.